title: Shifts from native to non-indigenous mussels: enhanced habitat complexity and its effects on faunal assemblages.
abstract: Ecosystem engineers such as mussels may affect strongly both the structure of benthic assemblages and the ecosystem functioning. The black-pygmy mussel Limnoperna securis is an invasive species that is spreading along the Galician coast (NW Spain). Its current distribution overlaps with the distribution of the commercial native mussel species Mytilus galloprovincialis, but only in the inner part of two southern Galician rias. Here, we analysed the assemblages associated with clumps of the two mussel species and evaluated if the invasive species increased complexity of habitat. To measure complexity of clumps we used a new method modified from the "chain and tape" method. Results showed that the identity of the mussel influenced macrofaunal assemblages, but not meiofauna. L. securis increased the complexity of clumps, and such complexity explained a high percentage of variability of macrofauna. The shift in dominance from M. galloprovincialis to L. securis may alter habitat structure and complexity, affecting the macrofaunal assemblages with unpredictable consequences on trophic web relations.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Universidad de Vigo, Campus Lagoas-Marcosende, 36310 Vigo, Spain. ignaciogestoso@uvigo.es
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gestoso
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Arenas
authors.forename: Marcos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rubal
authors.forename: Puri
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veiga
authors.forename: Miriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peña
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Olabarria
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology*; D058448:Biota; D017753:Ecosystem; D063366:Estuaries; D058865:Introduced Species; D049879:Mytilidae / Q000502:physiology*; D013030:Spain
keywords: Benthic ecology; Biodiversity; Clumps complexity; Community composition; Ecosystem engineer; Invasion; Limnoperna securis; Mussel species; Mytilus galloprovincialis